Free Agency this off-season

[MongoLikeSox]

My fall-back team this year will be the Cardinals.  Lived out there for several years and loved the fan base they have.  And their owners know baseball and know that the fans need baseball players to cheer on.

The only news this week, sadly, is Boston chasing Teoscar Hern.  A .253 avg with a Green Monster comfortable swing.  The 31% K rate is a disaster.  He and his agent will demand 3 years, but Breslow only wants him for one year, maybe two.  Looks like Angels will get him for 3 years.  It's all about the 2024 market, and our owners do not understand this years' market.  I think  they end up giving Duvall a 1-year deal to return to CF and end up trading Duran.  One step forward -  two steps backward for Boston this year.

;

I have not had a fallback team in any sport for a long, long time. Braves back in the 90's before I could get out of market baseball teams as easily as now. Mets for a few years when I lived in Upstate NY. I'll reserve that card for at least the first couple months and it will probably be the Braves. I like their approach. Well, approaches.

Not getting Hernandez is a good thing in my book.

[elktonnick]

My fallback has always been the Braves.  My first major league game was watching the Boston Braves play the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.

[Sea Dog 23]

My fallback has always been the Braves.  My first major league game was watching the Boston Braves play the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.

I had no idea the Boston Braves had some of the same guys who won the title in Milwaukee --  Matthews, Logan, others.  Interesting.

[SeaBeachFred]

My fall-back team this year will be the Cardinals.  Lived out there for several years and loved the fan base they have.  And their owners know baseball and know that the fans need baseball players to cheer on.

The only news this week, sadly, is Boston chasing Teoscar Hern.  A .253 avg with a Green Monster comfortable swing.  The 31% K rate is a disaster.  He and his agent will demand 3 years, but Breslow only wants him for one year, maybe two.  Looks like Angels will get him for 3 years.  It's all about the 2024 market, and our owners do not understand this years' market.  I think  they end up giving Duvall a 1-year deal to return to CF and end up trading Duran.  One step forward -  two steps backward for Boston this year.

;

Teoscar is a strikeout machine who seems to be on the downside of his career----just the type the Red Sox seem to embrance because it doesn't cost them too much money.  We signed a left fielder and have others who can play our there like Duran who must be given a full and complete shot at becoming a standout for us---which i think he will be, especially if he improves on his hitting against lefties which should come with experience.  Rafaella must be given a solid look as well if he is as good as the front office is claiming he is, though we also know some of the front office yokels aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.  Pitching and good pitching is needed and do it by spending money and not trading away our top prospects.

[SeaBeachFred]

My fallback has always been the Braves.  My first major league game was watching the Boston Braves play the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952.

And if you were a Boston Braves fan in 1952 Elk you know they opened their season with a three game series with the Brooklyn Dodgers......First game, 3-2 Dodgers, Roe over Spahn.  I'll let you research to find how the other two games game out, but if you can't find it I will tell you even though you might not like the news.  Eddie Mathews was a rookie that year and hit 25 homers but Joe Black got Rookie of the Year that season.  See what a blowhard your friend SBF can be.  All in fun my friend......and kudos to your better half.  Tell her to try and keep the faith.

[elktonnick]

Fred,, July 6 1952 Braves Field Braves lost.  7200 fans saw Spahn lose.  I and the baseball team my father managed were there.  The next year the Braves moved out of Boston



.

[SeaBeachFred]

Fred,, July 6 1952 Braves Field Braves lost.  7200 fans saw Spahn lose.  I and the baseball team my father managed were there.  The next year the Braves moved out of Boston



.

Sorry they lost that game Elk.  Who did they play?  BTW, you probably know that for that entire 1952 season they drew only 282,000 people.  Hard to believe that just four short seasons before they won the NL and got to the World Series.  Was Boston that much a Red Sox town even then?  I ask that because the Sox finish a dismal sixth that year.  Here's one for you.  Are you aware that when Spring Training began om March 1, 1953 they went to Brandenton as the Boston Braves and didn't become the Milwaukee ones until about March 18?  I think owner Lew Perini, a Bostonian, still had hopes that the team might still make it in the Hub.

[elktonnick]

Fred the Braves story in Boston is an interesting.one
  Just a few years before they left the Braves drew more than a million fans.  ( John Henry take note)
Lou Perini who was then a Boston based contractor and who my uncle knew personally did not get permission to move the team from National leagues owners until mid March of 53. Back then,
Braves field was actually considered a better venue to watch baseball than Fenway park.  Interestingly the largest crowd ever to see a sporting event in Boston was the BC Holy Cross football game in 1923 at Braves Field with a crowd of 54000.  BC Holy Croos baseball games would outdraw the Red Sox and Braves games back then as well.

The game I saw in 1952 was against the Dodgers.  We sat in the right field stands which by the way still exist being part of Boston University',s Nickerson Field.

[MongoLikeSox]

bah! Our big FA splash is Giolito, and it includes an opt out after 2024. 2 years, $38M for a rebound hopeful.

[elktonnick]

bah! Our big FA splash is Giolito, and it includes an opt out after 2024. 2 years, $38M for a rebound hopeful.

Well it is another "hoping he bounces back" signing.  One has got to wonder if Boston will ever be able to convince any one to come to Boston without an opt out.  I swear if Filene's basement were still in business the Sox would buy everything there.

[SeaBeachFred]

Fred the Braves story in Boston is an interesting.one
  Just a few years before they left the Braves drew more than a million fans.  ( John Henry take note)
Lou Perini who was then a Boston based contractor and who my uncle knew personally did not get permission to move the team from National leagues owners until mid March of 53. Back then,
Braves field was actually considered a better venue to watch baseball than Fenway park.  Interestingly the largest crowd ever to see a sporting event in Boston was the BC Holy Cross football game in 1923 at Braves Field with a crowd of 54000.  BC Holy Croos baseball games would outdraw the Red Sox and Braves games back then as well.

The game I saw in 1952 was against the Dodgers.  We sat in the right field stands which by the way still exist being part of Boston University',s Nickerson Field.

Good to get up to date on the events leading to the Braves re-location to Milwaukee.  Apparently from what you said Perini actually wanted to go to Florida as the Milwaukee Braves but the NL owners to commit to the first wholesale move of a franchise to another city.  BTW, The Braves led the league in attendance that season by well over a million customers.  Probably watching the goings-on was on Walter O'Malley, owner of the then Brooklyn Dodgers who could see a successful Braves team make enough money to pay higher bonuses to top prospects and put the Dodgers in a hole.   Five years late O'Malley said adios to Brooklyn.

[SeaBeachFred]

bah! Our big FA splash is Giolito, and it includes an opt out after 2024. 2 years, $38M for a rebound hopeful.

This is what I was afraid of--- getting another pitcher on the downside of his career.  Better than Kluber, yet Giolito got the shit knocked out of him last season and has been on a downgrade since his solid 2019 season.  The start of another pitching shit show on the ready for 2024 unless the guy has a remarkable comeback.  The God damn Prune Face just refuses to really open his wallet, the cheap bastard.

[Sea Dog 23]

There seems to be a time line on Giolito. His best pitches seemed to taper off about the same time they started checking for "sticky fingers".  His fastball lost some movement.   I'll trust Breslow to find his upside -- until I don't.

[Sea Dog 23]

It seems to be a screwed up FA market.  First the Japanese stars went on a tour, being wined and dined around the country, forever.  Now the FA market for pitchers is being controlled by Boras and his clients Snell and Montgomery.  He wants long years, 8 to 9, and he's shopping bids with the big clubs. Not good.  Pitchers report to ST in about 6+ weeks.

Sox IMO took the low hanging fruit with Giolito.  Not a Boras guy, but they got the opt out wrong.  they can possibly get out of the deal the first year, if he is good.  If he is bad, he probably opts in.  That should work the other way.  NESN thinks they know that Snell might look for a shorter deal -- to see if he likes the new city -- the short deal might be Breslow's smartest man in the room wheelhouse.  We'll find out.  Japanese lefty Imanega is down to Mets, Angels, and Sox.  So Boston has better odds.  But he has until Jan 11 to sign or he must return to japan.  It's a crazy market this year, like no other.

[MongoLikeSox]

It seems to be a screwed up FA market.  First the Japanese stars went on a tour, being wined and dined around the country, forever.  Now the FA market for pitchers is being controlled by Boras and his clients Snell and Montgomery.  He wants long years, 8 to 9, and he's shopping bids with the big clubs. Not good.  Pitchers report to ST in about 6+ weeks.

Sox IMO took the low hanging fruit with Giolito.  Not a Boras guy, but they got the opt out wrong.  they can possibly get out of the deal the first year, if he is good.  If he is bad, he probably opts in.  That should work the other way.  NESN thinks they know that Snell might look for a shorter deal -- to see if he likes the new city -- the short deal might be Breslow's smartest man in the room wheelhouse.  We'll find out.  Japanese lefty Imanega is down to Mets, Angels, and Sox.  So Boston has better odds.  But he has until Jan 11 to sign or he must return to japan.  It's a crazy market this year, like no other.

Reminds me a lot of when Harper and Machado were Boras FA's. Might have been a 3rd in there. The off season crawled.